The Open University's Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Open to people, places, methods and ideas

The Open University's mission is to make university study available to anybody, everywhere and at any time. This aspiration has always shaped the strategic choices of the University and its teaching methods.

The OU's four Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning reflected its commitment to be open to methods. Funded by HEFCE between 2005 and 2010 and drawn together into a collective known as the Open CETL, the Centres developed and strengthened methods of open learning in ways that reflect new social priorities and realities.

The Open CETL provided insights into delivery of effective life-long learning at scale and free from constraints of time and place.

Feedback from the 4th and final Open CETL Conference held on the 15 - 16 December 2009

With over 250 delegates, the Open CETL Conference once again proved to be an enormous success in 2009. The focus of this conference was to explore the ways in which the work of the four Centres could be carried forward and embedded into individual practices and across the University whilst celebrating the CETLs successes. A diverse programme with over 80 abstracts for short orals, workshops and simulations plus the ever popular poster presentation session ensured a captivated audience and stimulating conference.

After the conference, delegates were asked to a) provide three words that they would use to best describe the conference and b) how they would use the knowledge and understanding that they had gained from the conference in their own practice. We have created two word clouds using Wordle to illustrate that feedback.